#i generally think th's acting is a highlight of any marvel movie loki is in BUT i understand why watching all of several movies isn't

[asterdeer]

i think i saw one or two of the thor movies when i was like 10, but that’s my only experience of loki as a character. can i watch the new show? do i need background info? xo

ooh interesting question. my gut instinct would be "no" but i also am unceasingly flabbergasted by people who read book series out of order no matter how many times i find out they do, so i'm biased! i love CONTEXT

the first episode DOES include its own little highlight reel of loki's key movie moments, so it comes ready-made with a refresher. (d+ also has a legends episode for him, but it's not presented in chronological order, so idk how helpful that would be, unless you can differentiate the movies by which Terrible Wig tom hiddleston is subjected to, and it's not worth pirating if that's your route).

i think thor and the dark world are the most important movies in terms of loki's character development - a lot of what he gets in ragnarok is SO fun but not crucial, and he's used as a pretty baseline "bring the team together" villain in avengers. and ofc he dies in the first 10/15 minutes of infinity war which is. very important but can be experienced on youtube rather than having to watch a whole movie.

STEP ONE: BE CONCISE. STEP ONE FAILED. anyway. not to contradict myself but all that to say, i think it'd be possible to enjoy the show without having all the movie context? or at least without watching the movies. (that's kind of the situation loki is in himself lmao.) this loki is the one from the end of the first avengers movie, so that's where his characterization comes from, not from the later ones. i'd actually be really interested to see what someone thought about it without all the movie context! i'm not sure how much you would get out of it, but i do think that, at the very least, the performances are fun, the concepts are cool, and the story is going somewhere that feels exciting! and it's loki. he's good.

TLDR i'm not going to discourage anyone from consuming Loki Content, have at it, report back to me with your reactions!! i would recommend watching... hmmmmmm the Elevator Scene from ragnarok and loki's death scene from infinity war (it's pretty rough for an mcu movie imho, if you're not feeling up for that just a summary would be fine). the first is a key moment in the thor&loki relationship and the last is... obvious. these both get brought up in the highlight reel in the first loki episode anyway but they're good scenes!

+ also i'm sure there are summaries/rundowns that would give an outline of what loki was up to in the other movies, and youtube clips are a godsend. most of loki's scenes per movie fit in a single youtube video anyway

+ this is going to sound wild but if you like music videos, about half of all loki amvs is basically a (sometimes chronological!) examination of his character arc so that could be a fun 3.5 minute option

+ i am ALWAYS willing to talk more about loki as evidenced by the TOWER OF TERROR that is the response to this message. i'm so sorry please forgive me they're trying to find my shut-up-about-loki button is but science has no answers thus far. i am NOT scripting my own summary of loki-centric events as we speak why would you ask.